Waking Up
by caseyanne
Summary: It has nearly been a month since Alison's return to Rosewood. Can Emily & Paige make their way back to each other? Set in Season 5, Paily smut may be included in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

It had been almost a month since Alison DiLaurentis returned from the dead and came back to Rosewood. The small town was in a whirlwind still buzzing with the news of her terrifying kidnapping, the recent and brutal murder of her mother Jessica DiLaurentis and the suspicious death of local girl Shana Fling in New York.

Rosewood used to be such a peaceful town, but those days had passed many years ago now. The town seemed to be a hub for abnormal and tragic events, the deaths of its local townspeople seemed to have increased over the years, homes had destroyed by gas explosions, fires or even cars driving straight through peoples living rooms. Nothing was normal about Rosewood anymore.

It was Friday afternoon and Paige McCullers had just arrived home from her daily swimming practice after school. She pushed the front door open and was greeted by a dark house, not that she minded, as this generally meant her parents were not yet home from their after work drinks with colleagues which usually drifted off into the late hours of the night. She made her way to the kitchen and flicked on a few lights and started rummaging through the cupboards to find some snacks to fill the hunger growling in her stomach. Upon finding some low-carb chocolate flavoured energy bars, only her parents would ever consider this as a type of 'treat food', she walked around the kitchen and started closing the blinds as the sun was starting to set in the west. She chewed down on the energy bar and aimlessly looked around the kitchen until her eyes came to rest upon a note on the kitchen bench written in her mother's impeccable handwriting.

'Paige,

Your father and I have gone away to visit your aunt for the weekend.

We expect you to have all of your homework and assignments completed by the time we get back on Sunday afternoon, no slacking off especially since it is senior year.

If you need anything you can reach us on our cells.

Love Mom

xoxo'

Paige let out a sigh of relief, finally she had some time to herself without her parents constant excessive questions about her swimming times, school grades or the sudden lack of a certain Miss Emily Fields wondering about their house as of late. It had only been 5 weeks since Emily had broken up with her, and every day felt just as hard and empty as the last. Paige still loved her more than anything in this world, would do or give up anything for her, and no matter what she did or said Emily just couldn't or wouldn't see where she was coming from when she told the police about Alison being alive. All she ever wanted to do was keep her girlfriend safe, but ultimately their relationship was the price for Emily's safety and Paige had to live with that consequence.

Paige scrunched up the piece of paper and tossed it into bin on her way out of the kitchen, she grabbed her heavy schoolbag off of the floor and grudgingly made her way up the stairs to her room. Inside her room, the air was hot and stuffy from being locked up all day, she walked over to the window by her bed and cracked it open a few inches to let in some fresh air. Exhaustion suddenly took over and Paige collapsed onto her bed, rolling over to face the ceiling feeling utterly drained from practice and so thankful that there was a soft and comforting pillow to cradle her head.

Turning on her side to get more comfortable her eyes focused on the picture frame she kept beside her bed on the nightstand. Inside the frame was a picture of her & Emily taken only a few months ago at her aunt's lake house, they had managed to sneak away together for a weekend alone without a care in the world, it ended up being one of the happiest weekends Paige had ever experienced in her mere 17 years on this earth.

Pain shot through her body and tightened in her chest as she her mind started to recall the events of this week just past, the rumors that were spreading like wildfire around school kept swimming around in her head. Every time she had accidentally seen Emily in school, Alison was right beside her, leaning in close, lightly brushing her hand on Emily's perfectly tanned skin, Paige couldn't take it and would quickly walk off in the opposite direction incase she saw something that would confirm the stories to be true and her worst nightmare possible, that Emily & Alison were now an item.

Feeling overwhelmed by it all, her head started to spin and she took a deep breath before closing her eyes to shut out the world. Pulling her pillow close to her chest, hugging it she listened to the light sound of raindrops starting to hit roof of her house, within minutes she managed shut out the world fall into a deep slumber.


	2. Chapter 2

Emily absently stared out at the neighbourhood from the comfort of her window seat in her bedroom as strangers passed by going about their business. She often wondered if their lives were as complicated as hers, with all of the drama in this town she and her friends seemed to always be in the middle of it. Suddenly she was snapped out of her thoughts by the vibration of her phone against her leg, her hand delved into her jeans pocket and pulled out the phone to see the lit up screen saying that she had had one incoming text from Alison Dilaurentis. Emily's sighed and clicked open the text and read the message aloud to herself.

'Em I need you tonight, my dad is not home I need a lift to the brew and then I can crash at your place tonight after I'm done meeting up with Noel Kahn. I'll see you in 5 minutes.'

That was Alison alright, not a question but an order. Emily felt naïve to think that maybe things would change and be better this time around once Alison returned home, that somehow she would been transformed by this whole experience and be more appreciative of everything her and her friends have done for her over the past few years. Emily couldn't even count the number of times they had all had faced life threatening dangerous situations to find out the truth about what happened that summer on the Labor Day weekend and the identity of their obsessive and tormentor stalker that simply went by the alias of 'A'.

Their whole lives had been turned upside down since Alison returned and the interaction directly between the pair of them had been confusing to say the least. The things Alison would say to her, the way she would lightly caress Emily's skin with her own, and of course that kiss… since that stolen kiss in Emily's bed, something didn't feel quite right between them. Emily had feelings for Alison in the past, but present day Emily wasn't so sure if those feelings were the same as before. Looking back on that kiss now, it somehow felt so fake, like she was living a lie, and that Alison was trying to manipulate Emily's feelings like she had done the many times before her disappearance.

And then there was Paige McCullers.

Just thinking about Paige made Emily's head spin and feel disorientated. Over the past week or so every time she saw a glimpse of Paige at school, it was only of the back of her head as she was walking away in the opposite direction. Emily had this feeling in her gut that Paige was avoiding her and it made her heart ache. Emily had been the one to end their relationship, but it wasn't because she didn't love or care about Paige anymore, it was about trust and a broken promise. She entrusted Paige with sensitive information about Alison being alive and Paige just threw her under the bus and handed that information over to the cops. The police force in Rosewood was a joke, the only thing they could successfully and accurately catch is the flu.

Buzz buzz.

She felt her phone go off again; she checked her screen to see another message from Alison.

'Well?! I don't have time for you to daydream about naked supermodels Em, hurry up I'm outside and it's starting to rain.'

Emily swiftly felt a wave of anger course through her body, she wasn't anyone's personal chauffeur or assistant. What did Alison expect? Her to drop everything all the time and be at her begging call? Maybe in the past, but not today, and most certainly never again she told herself. Hastily she typed a response and pressed send.

'Sorry, I've already got plans.'

Buzz buzz.

'Fine, let me down again. You can make it up to me later.'

Emily surged with rage and lept off of the window seat and starting pacing the room trying to calm herself down, it felt like her head would explode she was so mad, then something caught her eye sitting on a bookshelf in the corner of the room.

It was a blue envelope with a hand written letter inside that she had received from Paige a couple of months back. Emily hesitantly walked over to the bookcase, and picked up the envelope and pulled out the letter from inside. She paused for a moment and took a deep breath before unfolding the piece of paper and started to scroll her eyes over the words written there.

'To my love,

You are the most beautiful person inside and out that I have ever met Emily, every day I wake up and pinch myself as I cannot believe that someone as amazing and perfect as you would ever be with me.

I can't wait to see you on Saturday at the lake house, I promise to make it a weekend we both will never forget.

Yours Always,

Paige'

Tears started flowing down her cheeks and that's when it hit her, what a fool she had been.

How could she have dumped Paige? Just casually tossed aside sweet, kind, loving Paige. At the time they broke up Emily was hurt that Paige went behind her back, even though deep down she knew that she was only doing it to try and protect Emily but her feelings for Alison had clouded her judgement and turned her into someone she didn't recognise anymore. Emily had never stopped loving Paige, and now she had made such a mess of everything but no more, she had to go, she had to go and see Paige right now and apologise and hope that one day, no matter how far in the future it may be, that one day she could forgive her for treating her so badly.

Emily grabbed her running jacket that was resting on the chair next to her desk and raced down the stairs causing a large thumping sound to resonate around the house. Launching at the door handle she threw the door open and slammed it quickly behind her as she ran outside into the cold dark of the night.

The rain hit her face hard as it poured down making it hard to see but she didn't care, all she could think about was getting to Paige's house as soon as possible.


End file.
